Great review as always, Dwipanita! I agree with a lot of what you've said, particularly about the scenes you enjoyed in Sunday's ep.
I feel like the last 4 episodes - or at least last Sunday's through to this Sunday's - should be viewed as an extended episode to really see what this whole track is trying to do. The week's break in between makes it all feel disjointed and frustrating (that's not to say the eps don't warrant that) but I imagine on a binge-watch, they'd flow a little easier.
The nonsense of the supernatural elements aside, these episodes have been showing us every aspect of Bani's love for Veer, from giddiness to intimacy to trust and everything in between. The track was also about Bani choosing to be with Veer, not out of some majboori or destiny, but because she wants to live a life with him. I loved Veer and Bani's vows to each other. They felt solid and weighty - all about forging their own path regardless of who stands in the way, in defiance of those who proclaim they are wrong for being together. Bani's vows in particular (because we always knew the depth of Veer's love) stood out - she told him in no uncertain terms that she will love and trust him as unconditionally as he does her, that he will always be first in her estimation and in her eyes, that he alone will have every right on her for as long as they live. It's everything he wanted to hear from her and more. I liked the way Surbhi and Sharad played both of those scenes, and kudos to them for bringing that angst and chemistry across despite not having shot together. Side note: I found Jai's expressions as Bani was saying her vows hilarious...it was as if he truly thought she was saying them to him. I think he genuinely believed that Veer would not be able to break out of his hypnotism in time, and Bani would just take that final phera with him and end up accidentally married to him...
I also enjoyed Bani's little rant in the bedroom. We all joked that Bani would murder Veer for running off to marry Chandni, and here she was, saying the exact words we'd imagined "tumhari itni himmat?!" Obviously, she's learned the art of provocation in order to get a reaction from Veer himself. I'd have loved him to wake up during that scene (esp after her threat to kiss him), but alas...I still loved that she stayed with him, head pressed against his chest, and that every time she woke, his name was the first thing to pass her lips.
I was annoyed at Ballu's weird evasion of the truth of what happened to Veer. I counted at least four scenes between the two eps where he was ranting vaguely about some aafat befalling Veer...but every time he was asked to explain it, he mumbled something and walked away. Either tell your family what's going on or don't, just stop being so vague and unhelpful about it. I did like that he thanked Bani, and has seemingly accepted her (at least for now) as his bahu. I guess he knows she's the lesser of two evils in comparison to Chandrakala. On one side is the enemy who nevertheless risks her own life to save Veer and bring him home, and on the other, the biological mother who would put her own son in danger and use him to further her own nefarious goals.
I always wondered whether the answer to the question "would you give up your powers for me?" would result in Bani becoming temporarily human...interesting that they did it for Veer instead, but I suspect it's got something to do with why Chandni/Markaat wanted his powers in the first place. It seems he gets his powers back quickly by next week, so we'll see what comes of this whole situation.
I saw some comments about how Bani's gift to Veer was "a gift for herself"...I find this a very unfair reading of this moment. The ring itself is clearly not the gift...the ring is a representation of Bani's commitment to Veer, her telling him that she is his as much as he is hers, that if he wears her ring and becomes hers "by haq", then she'll wear his and become the same. She was planning to give this to him before all of this drama happened, before the SR, in the moment where she was going to tell him what was in her heart. So in that moment, by giving him the ring, she would have unequivocally proclaimed herself his for life. Reducing that symbolism to "haha, look how self-centred she is, she bought herself a gift" seems very unfair to me, but sadly par for the course over here.
IDK, sometimes the comments I see on this board make me feel that Bani could literally kill herself to save Veer, but people would still say she didn't suffer enough...there seems to be literally nothing she can do that would satisfy, no amount of tears, emotional vulnerability or love she could display that would be enough for some. Meanwhile, Balwant and/or the cheels manage to do just about the bare minimum, and are praised through the roof for it. Truth be told, it makes discussions on this forum feel very one-dimensional and monotone. Sure, the track is definitely rushed, but personally I feel that if we can't look beyond that at this point, we're constantly going to be disappointed. Anyway, I'm not suggesting that anyone can change another's mind on where they stand vis a vis Bani, and everyone's entitled to their opinion; I just wish it didn't feel like a wasted effort to try and find some balance here.
Precap-wise, I don't know why, but I feel like Jai is being set up re: this centipede thing. How convenient that the bottle was just lying around for Bani to find...I don't want this to be the case, but I wonder if, in order to glorify Jai again, they're going to turn Meera negative? The fact that Bani was ready to kill Jai for what he's done was great, but then of course he is wounded by someone else...I'm thinking that perhaps he finds out that someone (aka Meera) is a villain, comes to Bani to tell her that and gets shot with the arrow right at that moment. Him saying "she's gonna kill everyone" is meant to make us/Bani think he's talking about Markaat, but I don't think it actually is that. For one thing, everyone already knows Markaat wants to kill them, there's no suspense there. At this point, if Markaat was free, she'd simply come and try to kill everyone rather than ranting about it. But it feels like they want this weird dynamic with Jai to continue, and so they'll have Bani turn against him for a moment, only for him to actually have been framed by some other mastermind, and he'll then help Bani and Veer/the cheels to defeat this person. Like I said, I don't want this to happen, because a) it's tiresome to have this continued weird dynamic with Jai, but b) aside from Veer, Meera is the only person Bani trusts completely, and to have one of her only supports then turn against her is too predictable a concept. But we'll see...
All in all, this week's eps were okay. The marriage tracks were clearly dragged out in a way this show doesn't usually drag things out, but that was probably due to it being the holidays and them wanting to let their actors have some time off, so whatever. At least it's done now. I'm hoping for some good Vani action next week, whatever form that takes. Now that they are both expressive in and open about their love for each other, their dynamic is again going to be different to what we're used to, but I look forward to it.
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
Health and Fitness
